Democrats in the House of Representatives have rolled out what they are calling a "Green New Deal." It is the most serious public policy offering from Generation Tide Pod Eater to ever be unveiled. It is exactly what you would expect.
In the rollout of their deal, the Democrats released an outline that summarized their legislation. It included such gems as, "When JFK said we'd go to the by the end of the decade, people said impossible." You might think I left out the word "moon" and a few other choice words. You would be wrong. The Democrats left those out. There is also this one: "We aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows."
This is not the product of serious people. This is the product of zealots who are under the impression they have more power than they actually do. The Democrats' plan calls for the elimination of fossil fuels and the embrace of 100 percent renewable energy, but would not invest in new nuclear power. Were this successful, the nation would be wholly dependent on the sun and on wind for energy. No nation has been so wholly dependent on the sun and on wind for energy since the period known as the Dark Ages.
The plan would also eliminate or retrofit every building in the United States to comply with increased efficiency standards. Concurrently, the plan wants to "massively expand clean manufacturing (like solar panel factories, wind turbine factories, battery and storage manufacturing, energy efficient manufacturing components) and remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing." The Tide Pod eaters who conjured this may not be aware that the creation of solar panels is seriously environmentally unfriendly.
The Democrats even claim they want to build massive high-speed rail systems to eliminate air travel so that one might be able to cross the country in three days instead of four hours. They would also apparently use the power of government to force everyone into a vegetarian lifestyle so they could eliminate the "farting cows" problem.
In the polite language of the Democrats, they would "work with farmers and ranchers to create a sustainable, pollution and greenhouse gas free, food system that ensures universal access to healthy food and expands independent family farming." A greenhouse gas-free food system would, definitionally, not contain carbon dioxide-emitting animals.
How would the Democrats pay for this? The policy outline provided says we shouldn't worry about it. "If Eisenhower wanted to build the interstate highway system today, people would ask how we'd pay for it." They asked then, too. More specifically, this is the actual language in the outline answering the question of "How will you pay for it?":
"The same way we paid for the New Deal, the 2008 bank bailout and extended quantitative easing programs. The same way we paid for World War II and all our current wars. The Federal Reserve can extend credit to power these projects and investments and new public banks can be created to extend credit. There is also space for the government to take an equity stake in projects to get a return on investment. At the end of the day, this is an investment in our economy that should grow our wealth as a nation, so the question isn't how will we pay for it, but what will we do with our new shared prosperity."
During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt added about $240 billion to the national debt. Ronald Reagan added about $1.8 trillion. George W. Bush added over $5 trillion, with Barack Obama adding about $8 trillion. The national debt will top $25 trillion by 2021, with interest payments on that debt exceeding every other expenditure. This green program would double the national debt, making it the single largest expenditure in the history of the United States. It would also bankrupt families, businesses and the nation. This Green New Deal would make the national socialists and their kissing cousins, the Soviets of mid-twentieth century Europe, very proud -- if only because it would destroy the American economy.
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